Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Arrivabene refuses to blame Vettel for Raikkonen clash

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Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene refused to blame Sebastian Vettel for the first corner collision with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Vettel turned in from the outside of La Source and hit Raikkonen, who had Max Verstappen on his inside. While Vettel blamed Verstappen for triggering the incident, he also conceded he should have left his team-mate more room. Raikkonen himself didn't point the finger at the Dutchman but was fiercely critical of his driving later in the race.

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When asked for his view of who to blame for the collision which damaged both Ferraris and limited them to sixth and ninth in the race, Arrivabene would not single out one driver.

“I don’t want to be involved in this kind of fight, accusing one or the other," Arrivabene said. "The reality is that we had a very good start and an accident at the first corner and we were damaged for the rest of the race. This is the reality and if we have to talk we will talk in the proper place.”

Asked what the proper place is, Arrivabene replied: “The drivers have the driver briefing, Charlie Whiting is there and we have another way to talk with the proper people if necessary.”

Arrivabene's comments suggested he apportions some blame to Verstappen, and when asked if the Red Bull youngster was driving dangerously or racing fairly, the Ferrari team principal said: “You saw the race right? You hear the comment of Kimi right? OK, that’s it.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.